Many products are sold in blister packages. In most of these packages the article, is placed on a piece of cardboard and then covered by a plastic bubble which is attached to the cardboard. Some blister packages use a plastic back rather than cardboard. Typically, blister packages are shipped in larger shipping cartons to the point of sale. There the blister packages are removed from the shipping carton and displayed. Usually, blister packages are hung on racks.
Many retail stores are selling articles directly from their shipping containers. This permits them to reduce their labor cost because they no longer need to remove the products from the shipping containers and place them on display racks. The preferred practice is simply to cut away a portion of the shipping container, leaving the product to be displayed on the remaining portion of that shipping carton. Preferably a sufficient part of the shipping container is cut away so that the product can be easily seen by the passing customer.
Because of their shape and the location of their center of gravity, most blister packages tend to fall over when placed in an upright position. Consequently, for blister packages to be displayed in a cut-away shipping container, it is necessary to provide a support structure to hold the blister packages in an upright position. A simple system which has been proposed utilizes an insert which is positioned adjacent opposite sides of the blister packages. The insert has slots into which the opposite edges of the blister packages are fitted. This type of insert is placed on opposite sidewalls of the shipping carton. However, when a vendor displays merchandise in a shipping container, he usually removes the top and most of the sidewalls. Hence, those support inserts that are attached to sidewalls are usually cut away from the sidewalls. If the shipping container is cut in a manner so as to leave the inserts in place, they partially obscure the blister cards and tend to be a distraction.
There have been proposed a variety of trays each having a base with a series of slots or valleys cut or formed in the base. The trays have been proposed to hold a variety of objects including blister packages. One shortcoming of the trays, however, is that after a few blister packages are removed the remaining packages tend to fall forward or backward. This occurs because the trays do not adequately support the blister packages.
There is a need, therefore, for a system which enables blister packages to be displayed in their shipping container. Preferably, the system permits a portion of the shipping container to be cut away leaving the blister packages in an upright display from which they will not fall even after some blister packages have been removed from the display.